There is significant regulatory and environmental motivation to improve the efficiency associated with residential, industrial, and commercial buildings. As a result, these buildings incorporate many energy efficient components, such as enhanced insulation, thermally efficient windows and doors, high efficiency heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, solar panels, and high-efficiency lighting systems, such as the LED-based lighting systems provided by Cree, Inc., 4600 Silicon Drive, Durham, N.C. 27703. In many instances, the lighting systems are highly intelligent and highly configurable, wherein if they are configured properly and customized to the particular environment, the efficiency of these lighting systems is extremely high. However, the lighting systems are generally commissioned with a basic or generic configuration, without being tailored to the environment.
In many instances, the owners or users of the building have little way of knowing whether or not their lighting system is actually operating efficiently or could be further optimized. Even if there is an indication that the efficiency of the lighting system could be improved, figuring out how to optimize the lighting system often boils down to a guessing game with the only feedback being a power bill, which is an aggregate of energy cost associated with the lighting system, HVAC system, computer systems, and any other power requirements of the buildings.
Accordingly, there is a need for technology that collects efficiency related information from a collection of lighting endpoints and presents the information in a manner that is readily understandable and effective to drive actions.